The University Apartments Community Garden

[Steven Backues]

At the last garden meeting, it was decided that one step that the gardens should take to help make more plots available for people on the wait list next year was to tighten up the policy on abandoned plots so that these could be reassigned more punctually. Will Waller was selected to draft a proposed policy. Here is the proposal, open to comments. Please post any suggestions or opinions:

At our last garden meeting I [Will] volunteered to put together some thoughts on how we might deliver abandoned plots to the waiting list earlier. The reasons for doing this are threefold:

1) it relieves pressure on the waiting list.

2) it provides wait-listed gardeners a reasonably full season.

3) it mitigates the weedy plot issue.

All three are important, though I suspect the weedy plot issue, might be the most important because the weeds flower and go to seed by June. So if we could interrupt this cycle, not only would the wait-listed gardeners benefit, the overall garden community would benefit.

What I propose is this:

1) We decouple publishing the plot assignments from opening day. There is no compelling reason to link them to opening day. Instead we should publish the assignments March 15. This gives the registrar one month to make them.

2) We initiate plot tilling in March.

3) We make the tools and carts available on March 15

4) We insert two strategic work days into the schedule, I suggest the 3rd and 4th Saturdays in March. These workdays would be dedicated to renovating plots with wire grass. If we got the worst plots dug out in March, we’d have a significant leg up on the weed situation in May.

5) We change the application to clearly indicate each gardener has six weeks to get their plot started. If the policy is stated on the application there will be no ambiguity.

6) We use the Seed Fair to emphasize the new 6 week policy.

7) We ask the garden worker to list the unworked plots the first week of May. (This is 6 weeks after assignment). We give two weeks notice. We start re-assigning plots by May 15.

The key driver is to provide more time to get started. If we do this, we reduce the impact of exam period on the issue. I know from planting and pruning fruit trees that the mid-March to mid-April period is a great time to for garden prep-work. The soil is no longer frozen, many of the days are reasonably warm.

Finally:

We identify abandoned plots again, in September. We till and seed these plots with rye.

[BeeGuy]

I found one of those pink laminated sheets posted at my plot, 728, this morning. The shame I felt was quickly eclipsed with worry for the tiny inhabitants of the stand of green garlic that earned me the warning. Yes, garlic does look a little like quack grass. Fortunately, it fails to spread like quack, and it's edible. But the garden jury didn't recognize this fact. So I went in and culled the garlic, creating a sizable compost pile in the process. As I removed the bulblets, I witnessed several toads lazily hop off to unknown spots. If you see these homeless herps, please thank them for allowing the beautification of my plot.

As I left the Gardens, I saw a blue laminated sheet posted at what appeared to me one of the least toad-habitable plots in Eagle Heights. The plot looked like something my obsessive-compulsive grandmother would have crafted--nary a weed nor seed out of place, military ranks of new greenery carefully positioned by fabric. From a biodiversity perspective, the aesthetic often driving my gardening, the plot was an eyesore. But from a Germanic every-thing-in-its-place perspective, it earns an A+++.

I'd like to see the Garden Jury consider other criteria besides simplistic beauty in determining who deserves blue and pink laminated sheets.

FYI, I cleaned up my plot but PLEASE DO NOT wreck my week by posting a blue sheet anywhere near it.

There might also be a feminist critique of the chosen color codes but I won't be the one to make it.

Happy Gardening.

[ShadyCharacter]

Are possibly abandoned plots still being identified? One adjacent to mine hasn't been tended in a month at least and the weeds are going to seed.

[Registrar]

Yes, we have a weed jury of gardeners each workday that review the plots and mark some as excessively weedy. Those plots are marked with signs asking the gardeners to contact the Registrar and clean the plots within two weeks. As the Registrar, I send an email to the gardeners conveying the same information.

If you want to bring any plot to my attention, just email me with the plot number. I can give those numbers to the jury to specially check and can email the gardeners to inquire about their continued interest in gardening.

We still have a waiting list of applications from potential gardeners wanting plots.

Gretel, Garden Registrar